Jagdish Tytler

Dear Friends:

First and foremost of all that has been written or said it is essential to draw attention to the fact that the Anti-Sikh Riots of 1984 was a catastrophic aberration, an earthquake that shook, mangled and tortured millions of people, not only in India but nearly the whole world. The Riots of 1984 will go down in history as the most shameful, disgraceful and most dishonorable event that happened in a tolerance oriented, peace-loving and democratic country.

The perpetrators of the atrocities that occurred in 1984 must be punished, irrespective of the position and power they hold, for they are the people who have wounded India with their innate selfishness and hatred for their fellow countrymen; and if found guilty of this crime against humanity, they must be given the utmost penalty by the law of India.

For the past twenty-odd years I have been living under a kind of eclipse, which has never moved away. This darkness that has come over me has over-shadowed my work for the Sikh community which has remained unseen. It is on record that I am the one person, who, inspite of the huge propaganda against me, has ceaselessly worked for the rehabilitation of the widows, the families and the Gurudwaras who had been affected by the riots. I can proudly say that I have slowly and steadily brought them back to shape, giving jobs to the children of victimized widows, and gave them protection through Police Stations. This not verbal – all these actions are on record and can be proved.

Even today, I openly challenge anyone, be they even a Sikh gentleman/lady to come forward with proofs to show that I am wrong and am a culprit, I would like to emphatically say and acknowledge my guilt, and receive their judgement with sincerity and take the biggest penalty that law of India can offer.

There are many articles and books written by lawyers, historians, and many others about the ’84 Riots. Many different political leaders have also written on this subject, but not one of them has mentioned my name with authentic, documentary of physical proofs by truthful witness witnesses.

There is a “Black Book” called which very authentically described the ’84 riots. This was written jointly by PUCL (People's Union for Civil Liberties) and PUDR (People's Union for Democratic Rights); where they had authentically stated that I barged into the Office of the Commissioner of Police inbetween a press conference and I accused the Police for hampering my relief work. A very unjust, mischievous, fraudulent twist was given to this, and a concocted story that I had gone to the Police Commissioner with a completely different motive. This has hurt me, my life, my family, and my healing work.

It is on record that I was involved in the relief work and the Police Commissioner was not co-operating with me. It was normal under those circumstances for anyone to barge inbetween a press conference or anything. Sometimes somethings becomes more important then anything else. I agree that a press conference plays a major role in the development of the country but during emergency, it is normal that the importance may shift to something else. Unfortunately, my "relief" work was related to "release" work. It is very illogical to make such kind of interpretation.

I don't know why people started talking about the statement given against me by the journalist. People started talking about me for pressurizing the Police for release work. On the other hand, I was blaming the Police for not co-operating in my relief work. People started believing what a single person out of the 15 member press conference said about me, even though, the report itself tells a different story.

On page 12 of the black book, details about the leaders for pressurizing policeman, my name is not mentioned there. It is very ridiculous that people are connecting me with the 1984 riots just because a single person said something against me? I would like to request you to go through the PUCL and PUDR report once again. Read page 12 carefully where the report speaks about the leaders pressurizing police.